The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-12

was eroaring and crying Most of them had
their legs broken After an hour and half We
cleared the car. They were Offering so each for
relief Probably there dozen bodies
taken out Mrs. Deal was one Of these got
down on the ground and assisted in taking the
dead down. They nut PLANK up and they
helped them out, sliding them down the plank.
II they were dead they nut them in ope pile. IL
alive, they put them in another. Every live
once. There were IN Mrs. James Deals party
Eve people-herself Mrs Wm Allen. Miss Ada
Webster, Mrs. VIM. Ball and Jennie
D'Shaughnessy. Every one of them was killed
pur the last. and they horribly disfgured.
It was late in the afternoon before they were
recognized. One OF the horrible incidents was a
man well dressed, who was so badly injured that
bis bowels were protruding. He called in
sessantly for water, and as he could
not be attended to, he finally
son of the Methodist minister at Arlington,
Frank Snodecker, about twelve years old, was
found on the bosom Of his dead mother. His
eft leg hung by the skin. His right arm was
broken and one eye was put ont. He never ut
tered eroan- They pulled him out and tried
10 give him a drink OF brandy. He refused to
sake it, and said, Give water
II found a head hanging from the trunk 1t
was apparently a man, and had been caught by
The hair. found several headless bodies. Lhose
who recognized the dead Immediately tlcketed
them. Van SAINT and Coroner Bennett were on
board, and did good work. George w. Scott.
the coal man. recognized e. Gosel, the butcher
Mrs Zimmerman, Mrs .valedjo and Captain
Dahlk, the harbor master. are among the dead
''Some OF those released robbed the dead of
their watches and valuables, and 1t was the
theory among many that. the bridge
set fire in order to thus
perpetrate robberies. large number of
those who have been pulled out of the wreck are
still unidentified. The people in the vicinity
did what they could. The fire department turned
put and everyone rendered all the assistance
possible They opened the school-house in
ChatswOrtb summoned the physicians. and did
everything in their power The town resembles
hospital"
VIM McFadden, of McFadden & Co, of Ha-
vara. ILL.,, grain dealers, was passenger in the
rear sleeper and he gives graphic account of
The accident, which is substantially the same as
Mr.. Whites statement He estimates the loss
" life at 175 persons
In relating his expe rence of the disaster, r
O. Fisher. of Kankakee, said: II was at El
Paso and missed the excursion train by less than
Ave minutes. / then took a freight. twenty six
minutes later, and whom we got to Forest the
conductor had orders to leave all his loads.
cure all the physicians he could and proceed to
a wreck three miles east of Chatsworth. Upon
arriving at the scene OF the disaster we
found the most heartrending and in
describable scene ever witnessed Men,
women and children were begging to
be taken from the wreck What made the stu
alton still more appalling was the fire on the
anything All on the train and such passengers
as were able TO do So procured dirt and tried in
every way possible 20 smother the fire. They
were SO far successful as TO prevent its getting
hold of the wrecked cars. Had it reached the
wreck. hundreds of wounded and inn
prisoned PASSENGERS w0nId have per. per.
the time of the arrival of the train till
about 1:30 IN trying to extIcste the suffering.
who were in such dread OF fire. and at that TIME a
friendly shower of rain relieved US from all fear
of the fire. We then went to work more deliber-
ntely. and continued up to o'clock, during
which time removed fifry and, aud
three or four times many wounded. A relief
train from the east took large number of
wounded to Piper City. The City. Hall and
school-house at Chatsworth were improvised
into hospital and the citizens came to our re-
lief"
Mr.. Risher said that they had nothing with
which to carry dirt to the wreck but their hands.
He stood the si:kening work of relieving the
wounded and getting out the dead until he came
to the dead bodies of two girls. about the age of
his own when his humanity gave way, and he
compelled to stop.
The only man on the wrecked train who lin
gered at the scene until tonight unharmed was
the porter of the only Pullman that was
damaged. It was the foremost of the string of
six sleepors attached to the end of the train.
The tenth coach was a total wreck, as was all its
predecessors, but the sleeper stopped with it's
forward end over the burning bridge. The
colored boys story about accurate
account could be gotten from any of the
passengers on the Inflated train Il was awake"
he began, when crossed the Illinois Central
tracks At Chatsworth and pulled up to the sta
ton. There a large crowd at the depot,
number of them being people from Pipers Sta
ton, the next station east of Chatsworth.
1t had been announced that the train would not
stop at Piper's. and excursionists who wanted to
take the train had to come down on the evening
train, well by wagon, to Chatsworth to do
jolly farewes were shouted to the departing
friends Dy those at the depot, and little
of their dreadful end. We pulled away. and L
went inside my car again. All the passengers
were asleep but two. They had all stayed up
late. singing and making fun. they seemed to
know one another well, but as | said. when
we left Chatsworth they were all asleep out two.
1t was 11:3O o'clock, and the train had been
ali inc lQ Mt aho rtv mil an
when we reached the top Of the hill about two
miles beyond. At the top of this grade there is
a turnpike crossing. and 1 remember the engin-
Ger whistling for it, as is the custom.
Then down the grade we went with
adash. A nome MT later came the crash; every
body was shaken violently, and many of
those in our car, were more or less
bruised. 1t was simply an awful jerk, lunge,
and then abrupt stop, and we were standing
still When we in the car looked out we were
awe-strcken that we could not tell what to
do. Our was afire in front and all efforts were
directed to extinguishing the flames The peo-
pie in the sleepers behind US were not as roughly
handled as we, and they came to our rescue and
hustled OUT as many as were able to work, to
help those in the day coaches ahead. 1t was
dark as pitch and the cars were heaped up SO
promiscuously that could not get at them at
all The awful grooming OF the wounded and
the sight and terror Of the whole thing
was more than 1 could stand. The
soon as possible It was dreadful wait be-
fore any assistance came, but l suppose in
reality 1t was only a Few minutes. We were
little better off then, for the provisions were al
together inadequate to the great work in
hand. Physicians were summoned from all
the neighboring towns, and by 3 o'clock
in the morning the officials of the road
the way from Springfield with all the doctors
they could muster. Two hours after the wreck,
and to add still more suffering to its horrors,
rain began to pour in torrents and for several
hours drenched the suffering and dying"
Experiences In Chair and Sleeping Cars.
CHICAGO, Aug. 1.-THE Times. Galesburg
H., special says: A number of Galesburg peo-
pie who were on the excursion train returned
tonight. w. Quicker and wife in the rear
1nd of a chair car. 'The shock came about
ten minutes to r. I aroused" said Mr..
Quicker, "by the smashing of glass and the
breaking Of car timbers, and by shrieks of pain